How do you cut down a motorcycle seat? Should you do it yourself or take it to a shop?

I've done it before, except I was making the seat more comfortable for me personally. If the seat cover is held onto the seat pan with pointed tabs, take a flat screwdriver and very carefully pry them out. Not a lot because they'll break off, but just enough so that you can unhook the cover. You'll probably want to leave the rear portion of the cover in place. I tried the electric knife bit but I'll tell you a plain coarse tooth hacksaw blade works far better. Using the blade itself, it's flexible and you can put a contour on the cushion if you wish.

Before you go to hacking away, you might try narrowing up the front portion of the rider's seat without altering the rear portion. When riding, the flatter the rear portion is, the more comfortable it is. However, the square edges splay your legs out at a stop sign, making it even more difficult to reach the ground. Trim the cushion a bit, try riding it, make a few more alterations and only after you're satisfied hook the cover over the pointed tabs. When you bend them more than a couple of times, they break off. If the tabs break off or you have a hard time getting them to hold the cover taut, use pop rivets with a small washer under the head to hold the cover in place. Small washers can be found at a hardware store.

Save the slices of cushion you remove. If you take off too much, you can always glue it back into place using 3M headliner adhesive. It's kind of pricy at $10 a can, but it's really good stuff.

Before you replace the cover the last time, I recommend you glue the cover on using the 3M adhesive. Spray it on the cushion and the inside of the cover, let it dry a bit and then replace it. That way the cover will stay in place and not slip or bunch up, especially if you're removed a fair amount of cushion.

You've already reduced by 4" and it's still too tall, it may need a smaller bike.

I've done it badly, shaving 1 1/2" off a bike for my short father.

This should be a better way.

Remove the seat cover.

Use a Guitar string as a flexible knife and slowly work th string down from the front to rear or at least 1/2 way, the passenger doesn't count

The reason to cut off the bottom is that the the top is a smooth surface and the bottom is egg crate shaped like those cheap mattress covers cut this off and save the smooth part.

RePlace the seat cover.

Even the egg crate part is padding, the seat will not be as comfortable.

Try it , if you fail you can take the pan to an upholsterer

First off, don't take it to a mechanic, take it to an upholstery shop if you're going to have someone else do it.

This thing about the less foam, the less comfort. Nonsense. When I rebuilt my bike, I got a seat off a newer model with about 3 1/2 or 4 inches of padding and couldn't ride for more than about two hours. A few older bikers told me that less cushion was my answer. So, I took a piece of leather I had and the seat to an upholstery shop, and $25 later I had a 1 inch hard foam seat that looked way better and is way more comfortable.

It's not hard to do yourself though, as long as you have some crafts skills, plus, if you goober it up, you just take it to a shop. A seat is not like an engine, where if you try to fix it and make a mess of it, the mechanic is going to charge you twice as much to Dr. it up.

Diy Motorcycle Seat

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Absolutely. The tactic I always use is to rid yourself of all sales people when you get into the store (if they ask if they can help you as you walk in, tell them you are just browsing). Take your time, walk around, look at all the different bikes (even if you have one in particular you are interested in). After a couple of minutes, ask a sales person about the bike you are intereted in. Let them describe it, ask them for total cost (delivery, taxes ect). Ask them if it's the best that they can do. If they don't cut you a decent amount off the top of the price, don't be afraid to walk out (plenty of dealers, and you can go back in a few days, getting another sales person can make a big difference). Once you've got them to drop down to a better price, ask for some add ons you might like (pair of gloves, a helmet, different seat or saddle bags). After settling on a price, they won't want to loose you. Demand a better price if you are intending on buying a scooter at the same place, make them pay for your business. Remember, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, they all have bikes and scooters, shop at each, get prices, don't be afraid to pit one against the other ("I like this Yamaha bike, but the Suzuki I'm looking at is $500 cheaper...")

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RE:

How do you cut down a motorcycle seat? Should you do it yourself or take it to a shop?

I have a bike that's a few inches too tall for me. Should I try cutting down the seat? The suspension has already been lowered 4". Is this a job for my mechanic or should I try to do it myself (or have my husband try)? Or would it be better to trade it in for a smaller bike?

If your talking about lowering the seat its self, you could get a used seat to practice on. I personally would take it to a good upolstery shop and tell them exactly what you need (but be very specific), but remember the less foam the less comfort you'll have on those longer rides. If your talking about lowering the mounting position of the seat for a lower overall look and feel definatly take it to a qualified shop for modifing bikes, but in the long run if you were to go that way you might be better off just getting a bike that fits.

Lots of times the problem is a seat that is too wide and causes your feet to be planted too far apart.

My wife lowered and narrowed my Valkyrie seat and her Magna seat (I think she used both a razor knife and an electric knife to cut the foam). Since she sews well, she made another seat cover out of marine grade vinyl.

This link is to a modification called the "Rood Seat Mod". It's primarily a how-to install-a-gel pad but will give you an idea of what's involved with lowering or narrowing a seat.

http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/roodseat.ht...

One good thing about doing it yourself is you can go slow until you have the perfect fit. If you screw up... stock seats are not that expensive or hard to find.

Seat foam can be trimmed by removing the cover, then trimming the foam with a common electric carving knife. The kind you will be using to carve the Christmas goose! Follow by smoothing with a disc sander [you can find one that chucks into an electric drill] re-stretch the vinyl cover keeping it warm with a hair dryer or such and pop-rivet & glue it into place. Upholstery shops [look in the yellow pages] can do this for a nominal fee.

I would personally take it to a shop because thats not something you want to make a mistake with. I would get a price quote for the repair and then go from there